It is often desirable to determine specific data relating to the performance capabilities and power consumption characteristics of a computing system. Such data may be used to maintain an amount of power consumed by the computing system at an acceptable power level, or to maintain the performance of the computing system at an acceptable performance level. However, it is often difficult to simultaneously maintain both the power consumption and the performance of the computing system at acceptable levels. In many cases, this may be accomplished by throttling, e.g., lowering the frequency, of the computing system such that the power consumption stays below the acceptable power level. However, the amount of throttling for reaching a particular power level may vary by 5-10% due to variations in the power consumption characteristics of system components. Thus, appropriate determination of, and control over, the power consumption and performance of the computing system is often difficult to achieve.
The same numbers are used throughout the disclosure and the figures to reference like components and features. Numbers in the 100 series refer to features originally found in FIG. 1; numbers in the 200 series refer to features originally found in FIG. 2; and so on.